Yes, disable both the wdmcserverd-and-wdphotodbmergerd services even though you don’t want to do so. Disabling both of those services appear to help some. This sleep issue is a problem that has gone unaddressed by WD since they introduced the OS 3 firmware a few months ago. There are several other threads complaining about the issue.
https://community.wd.com/t/how-to-permanently-disable-wdmcserverd-and-wdphotodbmergerd/135878
